Letters and Love
by LianatheWingedDrummer16
Summary: Guy has a new idea he wants to show Eep... And somehow, along the way, he manages to tell her he loves her while creating the world's first alphabet. It's probably the greatest idea he's ever had.


**A couple days ago I watched the Croods. Pretty late, I know, but I never got around to it. **

**Anyways, I fell completely in love with the characters, storyline, the very cute relationship, basically everything, and of course I turned to FanFiction to help myself out! If there are still any Croods lovers out there who also still read fanfictions of Eep and Guy romance or fluff, I hope you like this. **

* * *

Guy didn't think he'd need to have many more new ideas after he and his new family had reached Tomorrow, but it turned out that even without the emergency idea generator, another one started to nag at his brain, one that he simply couldn't get out of his mind. It involved being able to communicate without having to speak out loud, and he was just refining what he called "the alphabet" when Eep emerged from the bushes behind him, a curious expression on her face.

"Hey, Guy, what are you doing?"

He jumped slightly, fumbling around with the stick he had been using to draw in the soft sand that lay close to the tree line on the beach. "Oh, uh, hey, Eep! I was - I was just working on one of my ideas."

Eep sat down next to him eagerly, a smile forming on her lips. "I love your ideas! Wanna tell me what it is?"

"It's not quite done yet," Guy replied, almost painfully aware of her presence close to him. After so much time with being the only person around, he was still adjusting to sharing living space with other people, even if it was with the girl he was very, very attracted to. It would take some time to finally get comfortable with his new family.

He traced another symbol in the dirt. Eep leaned closer to get a better look and he smiled at her obvious inability to hold back her curiosity, sitting back and allowing her to see all the things he'd drawn in the sand, things that actually didn't look like pictures at all.

"What are those?" Eep asked.

Guy pulled her closer as he began his explanation. "Well, I was thinking, if we were in a situation where we had to stay quiet but somehow we still needed to talk with each other, we could use symbols to represent what we want to say."

"Isn't that what we have pictures for?"

He rolled his eyes but laughed. "Pictures take a long time to make. These symbols - I call them letters - will be faster and easier to write."

"Huh." Eep sounded interested, which was good. Guy always felt really happy and got this weird fuzzy feeling when she was impressed with and interested in one of his ideas, or when he showed her how to do something and she enjoyed it. "That's a good idea. I never thought of that."

He simply tapped the side of his head, grinning cockily, and Eep laughed.

Both of them jumped when Grug's voice echoed through the trees, just as Guy was about to keep explaining the idea. "Eep? Guy? What are you two getting up to?"

"Ugh," Eep muttered. "Coming, Dad!"

Guy quickly took his arm off her shoulder as she stood up to head back to their home. "Are you coming?" she hissed.

Guy considered it for a moment. Even though Grug had officially accepted him into the family, he was obviously still wary of the relationship between Eep, whom he still saw as his little girl, and her new love interest. He decided he'd avoid that impending disaster for the time being. "Nah," he finally answered. "I'm gonna stay and work on this..."

"Okay, I'll see you later!" She waved and left, the smile he absolutely adored on her face, and Guy felt slightly lightheaded as he turned back to the alphabet inscribed in the fine powder.

Belt nudged him, a sly look on his furry face, and then made googly eyes, resting his head in his hands and letting out a soft sigh. Guy blushed slightly and pushed the sloth over, saying, "Whatever, Belt," as he did so.

His friend had a point, though. He hated to sound mushy, but he was completely in love with the beautiful, fierce, rebellious cavegirl.

And to be honest, he really hoped she loved him too.

* * *

A while passed before Guy had completely outlined the details behind his newest idea, and it was nearly nighttime, with the dark he still did not much appreciate approaching. He stood up and brushed off the grains of sand from his hands and pants, Belt quickly leaping on to his waist to keep the clothing from falling down.

As he started the walk back through the jungle, he thought about how he was going to introduce this new thing to Eep. For some reason, he didn't feel like sharing it with the rest of the family quite yet - it would be their little secret for now.

Guy kind of liked secrets.

The firelight softly illuminated the foliage and trees around their campsite, and Guy was not at all surprised to see that Eep was the only remaining member of the family who wasn't sleeping in the new tents - animal hides propped up on poles - yet. He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he drew closer.

Eep looked up from the mesmerizing fire when his footsteps were close enough to make an audible noise. "Hey, what took you so long?" she asked.

Guy laughed as he sat down. "Sorry. I was just, you know, thinking that idea all the way through."

"Tell me what it is!" Eep insisted, scooting closer.

He watched the firelight dancing over her features, deliberating between his two options.

He didn't like to keep her waiting for something. She was naturally impatient, and keeping something from her usually resulted in him receiving lovely bruises.

On the other hand, it would take a while to explain the complicated concepts of his alphabet, and if he made her stay up too late she'd be really tired the next day and Grug would probably want to take his head off.

"Tomorrow," he promised, internally bracing himself for the possible punch or slap that would probably follow.

Eep huffed, and Guy was surprised she'd given in but somewhat pleased to see her reluctance. "Fine. But it better be good if I'm going to wait that long!"

"I think it will be," Guy said, grinning. She obviously liked new things - her inquisitiveness would hopefully be satisfied with what he was planning to teach her later. He loved seeing her wonder at all the undiscovered out there.

He and Eep sat beside the fire until it dwindled into embers amongst the ash, and he looked up into the night sky, the thousands of bright suns of Tomorrow twinkling gently down at the two of them.

Eep followed his gaze, and she murmured, "Tomorrow has brought us tons of great things."

Guy smiled, happy to see her enjoying her new life. He almost said, "It has. It brought me you," but instead he whispered back, "Like what I'll tell you when you wake up."

Eep's eyes widened, and she looked at him, pleased. "So it's gonna be good, then," she declared. "Right?"

"Please, you know me and my ideas," Guy joked. "Of course it'll be great."

Eep yawned, and he knew she was getting tired. "We should really get to sleep," she muttered. "Otherwise Dad'll want to kill us."

"True," Guy replied. He completely blew the fire out to prevent another disastrous episode like when the Croods had first discovered fire, and retreated to his own tent where Grug made him rest - away from Eep.

Across the small clearing of their home, Eep crawled into her own tent, and Guy imagined he could see her green eyes staring longingly at him, those two small points of light trained in his direction as he lay down on his side.

Just before he drifted into sleep, he thought about what Eep had said. Tomorrow really had brought him everything he'd missed - and more.

And maybe her eyes really had been locked on him...

* * *

He woke up the next morning to Eep roughly shaking him awake, her expression an eager smile as though she'd been waiting all night.

Which, knowing Eep, she probably had.

"It's tomorrow," she sang, still shaking him even though his eyes were clearly open, "and you can tell me now!"

His vision bounced everywhere for a moment before he was finally able to grasp Eep's strong arms and wrestle them off. As he sat up he choked out, "All right, all right - I'm up."

Belt made a discontented sound as he too awakened, stretching his ridiculously long arms out and grumbling. Guy chuckled, then stood, Eep following him as he left his tent, heading for the beach.

Once there, he searched through the sand for another stick he could use to draw again, to allow Eep to see what was going on in his brain.

He smoothed the sand over with the stick until it was flat, a perfect surface to draw in. He sat, and Eep sat close to him as well. His skin tingled ridiculously from the intimate contact as she leaned in to see what he was doing.

Quickly, Guy traced all the letters from yesterday, trying to make them as neat as possible for simplicity's sake, and also trying to ignore the sudden presence of butterflies in his stomach that Eep seemed to give him. It was weird.

"Whoa..." Eep stared, completely bedazzled by the strange symbols. "Is that what you were doing yesterday?"

"Uh huh," he confirmed. "Those are the letters of the alphabet."

"Alphabet? What's that?"

Guy had to laugh at the expression on her face. "It's just what I call the collection of those letters." He cleared his throat, preparing for the long explanation this idea would surely require. It would be difficult to teach Eep, but for her, he knew it would be worth it. "You remember what I told you yesterday?"

"Something about not having to speak out loud to talk, right?"

"Right." He gestured to the letters, all clean lines in the sand. "We'd use these letters to spell out words, like beautiful, or green, or tiger..."

Belt poked him harshly in the ribs, his eyes sparkling mischievously. He'd clearly also noticed that Guy had used words that all described the girl sitting next to him.

Guy wanted to smack his forehead in exasperation, but Eep didn't seem to notice, still entranced as she was by the symbols, so he continued. "And once they were written, the other person could read those words and know what they meant, if they understood them."

"Oh. I get it."

He smiled, glad she understood thus far. Then he gestured with the stick to the first letter, what looked like a circle with a line stuck onto its right side. "I call this letter A. With it, we can spell words that start with a, like awesome."

He taught her the sounds the letter made, familiar sounds but ones that hadn't ever been assigned a symbol before. Eep's green eyes brightened as she grasped the concept, eager to learn as she was, and he found himself thinking of when he'd said, "She's awesome," during the family's failed attempt at hunting.

A for awesome.

Funny how coincidences occurred.

Belt jabbed him again. If sloths could smile, Guy decided his long-time friend would have had a full blown grin on his little face. He glared at Belt for a moment, but continued to educate Eep about his new writing system.

B for beautiful. That word didn't even begin to cover it. B for Belt as well; he wasn't going to forget his oldest friend so readily.

C for Croods. Her family, and now, his.

D for dinner. Something she apparently still couldn't get enough of. Her eating habits had been and still were equally amusing and terrifying.

E for Eep. This had to be his favorite - the excited expression on her face when she discovered the letter that her name began with, the sense of identity that likely filled her as she stared at the small symbol.

F for fire. The thing that had brought them together, the thing that also brought them life.

When he reached G, after explaining the sounds, Eep immediately said, "G for Guy, right?"

He was startled and utterly pleased at the same time. "Uh, y-yes! You're beginning to get this."

Her answering smile could put the sun's radiance to shame. "Go on," she said. "This is a great idea!"

"Don't forget your father," he added, looking back at the stretch of sand before him. "You know, Grug?"

Eep looked confused for a second, then blushed. "Oh. Right."

He smiled and continued, reveling in the glow he got from watching her.

H for hunting. He loved watching Eep hunt; her power and skill never ceased to amaze him.

I for impatient, a word that also described Eep very well. Guy's bruises were still fading from the last time he waited to show her something. He was actually surprised he had been able to get away with it this time.

J for joke - he loved hearing her laugh, and those jokes just kept coming when he was around her.

K for kill. He'd had a lot of near-death experiences around her; some of them were (unintentionally) her fault and others were just hazards of being him.

L for love. Guy skirted around this particular word carefully, not wanting to give anything away quite yet, but Eep was transfixed, insisting he move on to the next letter when he deliberated for a bit too long over whether she'd understood the double meaning or not. He took it as a good sign that she didn't.

M for macawnivore. They'd all grown to love Chunky the adorable death cat, and he enjoyed riding through the forest with Eep on the enormous feline.

N for night, when he and Eep would always lay side by side, the fire blown out, and gaze up at the suns of Tomorrow. Night, when she would hold his hand; night, what had to be his favorite time of every single day.

Guy was actually stumped at the letter O, unable to come up with any words that described Eep at that moment. Eep laughed when she realized he couldn't think of anything, and suggested, "Overprotective?"

"What?" Guy furrowed his brow. That didn't describe Eep, unless he was referring to her actions around him.

"My dad..."

"Oh, right - yeah, that's a good one. Overprotective." He laughed, slightly rueful with himself for forgetting the man who had actually taken down the barriers between him and Eep that he himself had set up.

P for piranhakeets. Saving Eep from those deadly birds would forever remain in his memory as the first time he'd impressed her and also the beginning of their journey as friends, and hopefully more...

Q for quick, like her reflexes, like the rate at which she learned things. Right then, she was completely absorbing what he was teaching her like the dirt soaked up rain during a storm, and he loved watching her claim knowledge for her own, satisfying her rampant curiosity.

R for romance. He yelped when Belt practically stabbed him with his paw again. "Ouch! ... Really?"

Unfortunately, Eep happened to notice that time, and she cocked an eyebrow at him. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," he muttered. "Let's keep going."

S for sun. Beautiful, bright, giving... One of the things that made his world keep turning, day after day.

T for tiger, the animal she was and represented. For Tomorrow, the paradise they lived in.

U for Ugga, the woman who had made him feel a little more at ease with this strange new family. Eep's mother had been the first out of everyone else to truly accept him.

V for view, because of the huge expanse of water beyond the forest and the sky at night, and also her green eyes, sparkling in the most beautiful way when he told her jokes. The last one was admittedly what first came to mind with this word.

W for warmth. What always spread through him whenever he heard Eep's laugh, or whenever he saw her eyes light up as she recognized him from afar. The glow that lit him from within when she always moved to sit by him.

X for...

Well, Guy, after explaining the sounds, found he couldn't really find a word that started with the primary sound this particular letter made.

"I don't know any words for this one," he admitted to Eep, scratching his head. "I can't really explain it."

Then something occurred to him and he said, "Never mind! How about we use the word explain?"

Eep laughed. "Sure! Whatever works, especially the one you just said." She smiled broadly and he found himself out of breath. He had to really focus to get back to teaching her the alphabet, wrenching his attention away from the fiery red strands of her hair lit up by the sun and going back to the symbols.

Y for yelp. Eep looked at him oddly and he hastily informed her that Belt happened to poke him a lot, thus the cause for his strange outbursts.

He omitted the part where Belt only jabbed him when he made too many references to Eep, or stared at her for too long. She didn't need to know about that quite yet.

And finally, Z. Z for zealous.

Eep asked, "What does that mean?"

"Eager," he answered. "Enthusiastic."

"Oh, I see."

This time, he dared to say, "Like you," and he was rewarded with a blush and a laugh. It always made him smile.

He leaned back, giving Eep some time to digest all of this new information. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, and she rocked forward on her palms to get a better look at the other letters.

"You think you might wanna try making words?" Guy asked tentatively, and Eep nodded.

"Let's do it," she said. "Can we try the word sun?"

He grinned. That one would be pretty easy. "Sure."

He picked up the stick again, then drew an S, saying, "We use S because it makes the 'sss' sound."

"Uh huh," Eep said, nodding.

"Then U, for the 'uh' part," he continued, drawing what looked like half of a circle."

"And then N, for the 'n' sound, right?" Eep asked, catching on quickly, and his face brightened as he realized exactly how fast she was getting it.

"Right. Good job!" Guy said enthusiastically.

He was surprised when Eep, after a short period of satisfied contemplation, blurted out, "Can I try something?"

"Sure," Guy answered, completely bemused.

Eep seemed unsure as she took the stick from him, gently, and looked at him, something he couldn't identify swirling in her eyes. Quietly, she said, "I don't know how to say this out loud, so I'm writing it because I just don't want to mess this up."

Confused, Guy watched her use his letters as a reference, and soon enough she'd spelled out a small sentence in the sand below them. He leaned over to read it, unaware that what she'd written would change his life forever.

_I luv u. _

His heart leaped in his chest and hammered twice as fast, his eyes widened, his throat constricted - because everything he'd been about to tell her, she'd gone ahead and said.

She amazed him at every turn.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat, choked out, "You love me?"

Eep nodded. Her big green eyes were tearing up, almost scared-looking. "I didn't know how else to tell you. I was afraid, and I hated being afraid, but I couldn't risk letting go of all of this. I couldn't lose your friendship."

"We weren't meant to be friends," Guy found himself saying. The shocked and hurt look, the rejection that appeared on Eep's face made him quickly amend, "Not just friends. I love you too." His voice was hardly louder than a whisper at the end.

Eep's eyes widened and her mouth opened, but no words came out. He saw her swallow, her mouth tightening as she tried to hold back those tears, and then she crumpled, leaning into him and taking him by surprise as she began sobbing, her strong arms holding him in a vice-like grip.

He pulled her close, calming her and holding her close as she let loose the tears she'd been harboring. Clearly she was the happiest she'd ever been at that moment, and he could feel those feelings mirrored in himself, his heart fluttering erratically, his head seeming to float in the clouds. Everything seemed so unreal, so beautiful, so right, and he wondered if it was somehow possible that all this wasn't a dream.

Because Eep loved him, and he loved her back with every fiber of his being, and right then the two of them together made more sense than the alphabet had the day before.

And yesterday, those carefully created letters had made perfect sense.

* * *

**I have to admit that while I was on a plane flight to Europe, I was in business class for the first time, you know, with all those fancy seats and TVs because I'm such a fucking lucky girl like that, and then halfway through I was scrolling through the movie choices and I found The Croods. I was like, "Hey, why not? It seemed like a funny movie from the trailers..."**

**I watched it and halfway in I was like, "This is too fantastic, I absolutely love everything in this!" And then Eep and Guy started to show interest in each other and I was fangirling really hard. **

**God damn. So adorable. As with most DreamWorks movies, they seem like it's just about fun when it's so much more than that! An actual plot that I love, great characters, and the lovely dash of romance that literally makes me fall to the ground, rolling around and screaming because it's just so cute. **

**But I also have to admit I didn't identify much with Eep and Grug's father-daughter relationship. However, that's probably because I don't have problems with my dad, but I did bawl like a baby when watching Brave because I have those problems with my mom. So if I did have dad issues, I probably would have cried here too. Ha ha. Anyways, the movie was and still is permanently stuck in my heart - I just love it. **

**I thought it was freaking adorable how Eep and Guy both thought of her as a tiger, because that's my favorite animal and the animal I literally wish I could be. Coincidence? I think NOT!**

**Just kidding... Although I'd love to find someone like Guy. **

**This movie made me so damn happy it's not even funny. **

**Review?**


End file.
